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The Athletics Integrity Unit, which oversees doping cases for World Athletics, announced the suspension, quoting from a ruling that called the 100-meter champion in 2022 "'negligent and, to a certain extent, reckless'" in not adhering to anti-doping regulations."

The decision said Kerley's missed tests occurred from May through December of 2024. Last September, he became the biggest name in sprinting to announce he would run in the Enhanced Games, a start-up league that will not penalize athletes for using banned substances.

Shortly after the ban was announced, Kerley released aflurry of social media posts, one of which featured him and a picture of him bursting through a phalanx of men dressed like military police wearing uniforms with "AIU," "WADA" (World Anti-Doping Agency) and "USADA" (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) on them.

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"I'm tired of holding everything in," it said. "You can't control me, and the truth is louder than silence."

Anotherpost, which could have been a reference to the doping-control officers that arrived on one of the days he missed a test, said "A random number from Mexico that looked like a scam call and I'm supposed to answer that? I live in USA why is a number calling my phone from Mexico."

Kerley's suspension will run through Aug. 11, 2027.

AP sports:https://apnews.com/sports

Berger built on Thursday's 63 with a 4-under-par 68 to climb to 13 under at the halfway mark of the $20 million signature event. Akshay Bhatia posted a 66 to take sole possession of second at 8 under.

Also in striking distance are Sahith Theegala (67), Collin Morikawa (71) and Sweden's Ludvig Aberg (71), who are tied for third at 7 under, and Rickie Fowler, who's alone in sixth at 6 under after his second consecutive 69. Xander Schauffele (71) and defending champion Russell Henley (69) are tied at 5 under.

Berger, a former World No. 12 and 2021 Ryder Cup winner, hasn't won on the PGA Tour since the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He missed 18 months with a back injury and struggled to regain his old form once he returned.

On Friday, he rolled in five birdies while limiting himself to one bogey. He ranks second this week in strokes gained approaching the green and third in strokes gained putting.

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Bhatia is the closest to chasing him down after he poured in seven birdies on Friday and saved par from the bunker at the difficult par-4 18th.

Rory McIlroy improved on his opening round by four shots, the Northern Irishman's 68 vaulting him to 4 under and part of a tie for ninth. Scottie Scheffler (71) is at 3 under.

This is one of three signature events with a 36-hole cut. Only the top 50 and ties will make the weekend. U.S. Open winner J.J. Spaun (3 over), Irishman Shane Lowry (3 over), Australia's Jason Day (4 over), Patrick Cantlay (4 over) and Keegan Bradley (5 over) are among those in line to miss the cut, projected to be 2 over par.

Justin Thomas shot two straight rounds of 79 in his first start of the season following November back surgery. He finished in dead last among 72 players at 14 over.

--Field Level Media

That prediction turned out to be true, as Tatum will return to action Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks,the Celtics announced. The team initially listed Tatum as questionable on its injury report before upgrading him to available.

His comeback follows an up-and-down rehab. At times,Tatum showed off incredible progress, offering hope he could get back before the year was over. But in January, a report emerged suggesting the 27-year-old starcould shut it down and prepare for next season.

Shortly after that report, Tatum's return started to look more realistic. In February, it was reported that Tatum was taking part in controlled scrimmages. He was assigned to the team's G League affiliate to start taking part in practices. Eventually, Tatum found himself listed on the Celtics' injury report, a sign he was getting close to a return.

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That culminated in Friday's news ahead of Tatum's long-awaited but inspiring return from a devastating injury.

Despite being without Tatum — and trading away Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday — the Celtics have performed much better than expected. The team sits near the top of the Eastern Conference, with forward Jaylen Brown in the midst of an MVP-caliber season.

While it's impossible to know whether Tatum will fully return to form upon his comeback, the forward should make an impact, even if he's not at full strength. Tatum has made the All-Star team in each of the past six seasons in which he was healthy, and while he hasn't won an MVP award just yet, he's been in contention for that honor multiple times over that period.

Last season, Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game. Those numbers earned him his fourth straight appearance on the first team All-NBA team.

The move comes at the perfect time. With the Celtics rapidly approaching the playoffs, Tatum should have enough time to work himself into form before the end of the regular season. If the team can get him back to full strength in time for the playoffs, the Celtics could be bound for a miraculous championship run during a year most wrote the team off.

As theIran warunfolded in the Mideast, Asif Merchant acknowledged in a U.S. court that he sought to put an assassination in motion during the 2024 presidential campaign — a plot that was quickly disrupted by American investigators before it had a chance to proceed.

A jury in Brooklyn convicted Merchant on terrorism and murder for hire charges.

After showing an acquaintance what he had in mind by usingobjects on a napkinto depict a shooting at a rally, Merchant was introduced to two supposed assassins — actually undercover FBI agents who were secretly recording him, as had the acquaintance.

Merchant told the supposed hit men he needed services that could include killing "some political person" and paid them $5,000 in cash in a parked car in Manhattan.

In remarkable testimony in a New York federal court, Merchant said he was carrying out instructions from a contact in the Islamic Republic's powerfulparamilitary Revolutionary Guard. According to Merchant, the handler never specified a target but broached names including then-candidateDonald Trump, then-PresidentJoe BidenandNikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who was also in the race for a time.

The Iranian government has denied trying to kill U.S. officials.

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Merchant, 47, worked for Pakistani banks for decades before going into clothing and other businesses. He has two families, in Pakistan and Iran, and he sometimes visited the U.S. for his garment business.

Merchant testified that he met a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative about three years ago. The contact gave him countersurveillance training and assignments including the assassination scheme, Merchant said.

He maintained that he had to do his handler's bidding to protect loved ones in Iran. The defendant said he reluctantly went through the motions but thought he'd be arrested and explain his situation to authorities before anyone was killed.

"I was going along with it," he said, speaking in Urdu through a court interpreter.

Prosecutors emphasized that Merchant admitted taking steps to enact the plan on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard, which the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist organization, and he didn't proactively go to authorities.

Instead, he was packing for a flight to Pakistan whenhe was arrestedon July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelatedattempt on Trump's lifein Butler, Pennsylvania. Officials said it appeared the Butler gunman acted alone but thatthey had been trackinga threat on Trump's life from Iran, a claim that the Islamic Republic called "unsubstantiated and malicious."

When Merchant subsequently spoke to FBI agents to explore the possibility of a cooperation agreement, he didn't say he had acted out of fear for his family.

Prosecutors argued that he didn't back up a defense of acting under duress. Merchant sought to persuade jurors he simply didn't think the agents would believe him because they seemed to "think that I am some type of super-spy," which he said he was "absolutely not."

Much of the intelligence Russia has shared with Iran has been imagery from Moscow's sophisticated constellation of overhead satellites, one of the people said. It is not clear what Russia is getting in return for the assistance.

CNN has asked the Kremlin and the Russian embassy in Washington for comment.

It is also not clear whether any single Iranian attack can be linked to Russian targeting intelligence, which wasfirst reportedby the Washington Post. But several Iranian drones have hit locations where US troops have been in recent days. An Iranian drone struck a makeshift facility housing US troops in Kuwait on Sunday, killing six US service members, CNN has reported.

One of the sources briefed on the intelligence said, "This shows Russia still likes Iran very much."

The US also has intelligence suggesting that China may be preparing to provide Iran with financial assistance, spare parts and missile components, three people familiar with the matter said, though Beijing has stayed out of the war up until now. China relies heavily on Iranian oil and hasreportedlybeen pressuring Tehran ⁠to allow safe passage for vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

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"China is more cautious in its support. It wants the war to end because it endangers their energy supply," one of the sources familiar said.

The CIA declined to comment. CNN has asked the Chinese embassy in Washington for comment on the suggestion China may be preparing to assist Iran.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Wednesday that Russia and China are "not really a factor" in the war with Iran.

Russia and Iran have been cooperating for at least the last three years on missile and drone technology, with Iran providing Russia with Shahed drones and short-range ballistic missiles to target Ukraine and helping to set up a massive drone factory to pump out Iranian-designed drones inside Russia. Iran has in turn sought Russia's help to bolster its nuclear program,CNN has reported.

The US operation against Iran currently involves more than 50,000 troops, more than 200 fighter jets and two aircraft carriers, CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said this week, and administration officials have not said how long the war is expected to last. The US military objective, according to Pentagon officials, is to eliminate Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, which Pete Hegseth said this week Iran was using as a "shield" to develop its nuclear program.

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"It's an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone," López said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo from his home in Alexandria, Virginia.

About a decade ago, immigration officials argued that the citizenship López obtained as a minor through his naturalized mother was not valid. This put him on a path to deportation because of a previous drug conviction when he was younger.

During those years, López always insisted that he was a U.S. citizen when he was questioned by ICE officers, his lawyers, judges and journalists.

"I came from El Salvador with permanent residency when I was 11 years old, and when my mother became a citizen, I was 16 years old, so I automatically obtained citizenship derived from my mother. That's how it was," he said.

According to the website of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,derivative citizenship refers to the automatic acquisition of U.S. citizenshipby children under 18 years of age through the citizenship status of their parents and, under certain circumstances, by adopted children of U.S. citizens born abroad.

López was detained by ICE officials in January 2023 and was held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia. He was not released until Feb. 13 of this year after the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appealsissued a rulingthat not only stopped his deportation, but also reaffirmed that he's a U.S. citizen.

"The court says in its decision that he has been an American citizen since 1998. That's why they are releasing him," said Benjamin Osorio, López's lawyer.

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment from Noticias Telemundo on López's case.

Why was a U.S. citizen detained by ICE?

López's arrest was the final step in a long process in which he had to fight the courts to try to have his citizenship recognized.

López came to the U.S. as a legal resident after his mom, a legal resident and a single mother, completed the paperwork to bring him from El Salvador in the early 1990s. When he was 16, his mother became a naturalized U.S. citizen and he automatically acquired derivative citizenship underTitle 8, Section 1432 of the U.S. Code,the law in effect at that time.

At age 20, López was convicted of drug offenses (in 2004 and 2005) and served a seven-year prison sentence. During his time in prison, he was visited by officials from DHS, who in 2009 determined that he had obtained U.S. citizenship through his mother.

"They came to see me in 2009 and declared that I was a citizen," López said in aninterview with Noticias Telemundo last year, while he was in custody.

After his release from prison in 2011, López rebuilt his life: He finished high school, learned electrical work, started his own company and spent more than a decade working, married and raising his children without further legal trouble.

However, in 2016, according to court papers and López's attorney, DHS changed its position, deemed him a legal resident but not a citizen and initiated removal proceedings because of his previous drug conviction.

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From that time until his eventual immigration detention in 2023, López and his attorneys had been trying to prove he had legitimately acquired U.S. citizenship through his single mother.

The government argued that the Salvadoran constitution had eliminated legal distinctions between children born in or out of wedlock, meaning that deriving citizenship from his mother was not enough.

"He would have had to prove that his father was also naturalized, but apparently his father never had a relationship with him," said Charles Wheeler, a senior attorney with theCatholic Legal Immigration Network.

López said that in 2023, "one day I went to work and about eight immigration agents were waiting for me." The agents told him he wasn't a citizen, that he was still a legal resident with "aggravated felonies," and that he was now deportable.

The ruling that declares him a citizen

Last month, the 4th Circuitissued its decisionconcluding that López met the requirements of the law that governed derivative citizenship before its reform in 2001. The judges analyzed Salvadoran law on parentage and legitimation, as well as López's family history, to determine whether or not his biological father had "established paternity" in the required legal sense.

"They concluded that my father never established paternity and never made me a legitimate son, even though his name appeared on my birth certificate," López explained. Essentially, the court agreed that his mom had been his sole parent and legal guardian, so deriving U.S. citizenship from her alone had been legal.

Immigration attorney Enrique Espinoza recommends that people with parents who are U.S. citizens by naturalization or birth consult with a lawyer and, if possible, obtain formal proof of citizenship — such asthe N-600 certificateor a U.S. passport — before a misunderstanding turns into a crisis.

In fact, Espinoza said it's not uncommon for people to have acquired U.S. citizenship through their parents "and not know it — that really does happen."

'ICE should not detain U.S. citizens'

Following the recent court decision, López's legal team is focusing on obtaining all the necessary citizenship certification and pursuing some form of redress.

"We are going to sue the government. ICE should not detain American citizens," said Osorio, López's attorney. After three years in prison, López lost his business as an electrician.

"He has lost his job. He has lost a lot. We are going to try to recover his money," Osorio said.

"This has cost me dearly; I've lost everything. My family had to endure a very unpleasant experience because of my unjust arrest, even though they knew I was an American citizen," López said.

While his legal team continues working on his case, López says he is trying to return to a normal life and always carries a copy of the 4th Circuit's decision in case a police officer or federal agent arrests him again. His main goal is to rebuild his electrical company and resume working with the contractors who knew him before his arrest.

"I can't get that time back — what's lost is lost," López said. "Now I have to start over. I have many contacts who know that my dedication and honesty at work are 100% guaranteed."

During the long nights while he was detained, López began writing songs about his legal situation and what he saw in the detention centers. He wrote that his family kept him going as he fought the government, and that the "love of my family continues to wait for me."

An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.

The organization is enduring another brutal NBA campaign, with their one-year revival as a playoff team in 2023 disintegrating into yet another rebuild andthe worst record in the leagueless than three years later. But Westbrook insisted during a tense exchange at a March 5 news conference that local media members are contributing to the problems with "false comments" regarding him and other Kings' players.

"You guys have a lot of opinions about how we do what we're doing. What you got," Westbrook asked in the aftermath ofSacramento's 133-123 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. "You make a lot of statements and broad statements that you have no context, so where do you get your context from? Are you in practice? Are you at our film session? Are you anywhere around the building?"

Oct. 26: The Brooklyn Nets' Michael Porter Jr. dunks in front of the San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama at Frost Bank Center.

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Westbrook declined to elaborate when asked for specifics about what sparked his comments, but continued to answer questions with criticism of the team's media coverage.

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When one reporter noted criticism of the team was fair considering its record and status in the bottom-three of the NBA in offensive and defensive rating this season, the 37-year-old guard said backlash against the Kings (14-50) has too often not been about basketball.

"You guys' job is to talk about the game, what's happening in the game, not stir up a bunch of – I don't want to cuss here because I don't want to get fined – but stir up a bunch of stuff that, it's not accurate and that's my problem," Westbrook said. "Being in the league awhile, I've been able to experience a lot of these times where people outside of our building, outside of the film session, outside of what we do daily, how much work we put in, that is not an easy job to do.

"Y'all come in, y'all make your comments, and nobody say nothing. But I don't have to sit back and say nothing," Westbrook continued. "... As a leader of this team, it's my job to speak up for the guys in the locker room. We talk about it. They see it. I hear it. Because of the comments you guys make, you got guys thinking about a bunch of random things that has nothing to do with the game. You guys are making false comments about our team and what we're doing here, and I don't appreciate that. So my ask is that you respect what we do and we'll respect what you do."

Russell Westbrook stats

Westbrook, now finishing up his 18th NBA season,signed a one-year deal with the Kings in October. They are his seventh team in eight seasons after starting his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 2017 NBA MVP winner is averaging 15.3 points, 6.4 assists and 5.3 rebounds in nearly 29 minutes per game in Sacramento this season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Russell Westbrook confronts media over 'false comments' about Kings